When you’re running your own business, it can be difficult deciding who it is you want to create your lasting business relationships with. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that there’s so much choice out there – so to help you narrow down those choices, we’re here to convince you of the benefits of working with local businesses.
- Cultural similarities
Have you ever been on holiday, and unexpectedly met someone from your hometown? There is nothing quite like the bond of having grown up in the same place – the cultural references are the same, personal values are often similar, and your understanding of the world is often shared. Therefore if you need to work with a business, especially on something people-centred or creative, working with a local business can be a big benefit as you are both coming from the same perspective. For example, if you are overhauling your digital marketing strategy and you’re based in Toronto, using SEO services Toronto as your search term could really get you off to a good start; locally based digital marketing companies will absolutely already have a grounding in understanding you customers!
- Knowledge of the area
One huge benefit of working with local businesses is their awareness of the local area. They know which areas of town are trendy or dull, dangerous neighbourhoods from safe – and this can be especially beneficial when trying to sort out something like a move, because you can trust them to take a good route and look after your stuff. For example you’re going to have a better experience moving from one end of LA to the other by using moving services Los Angeles than you will by using a generic shipping company who don’t necessarily know anything about the area and who could well even charge you more.
- Benefits the local economy
It’s a well known idea that working with local businesses can create a fantastic boost to the local economy. The more you spend in your local area, the better those businesses do, meaning that the people that own and work for those businesses are doing better and in turn have more to spend – in basic terms! Therefore you are doing your local area a large favour by doing your best to keep your business relationships locally centred, and in the long run you are doing your own business a favour because you are making sure it has space to thrive in an economically successful area.
- Potential discounts
As well as being beneficial to the local area to work with local businesses there’s also a chance it could save you some money. In some cases, this comes in the form of discounts – plenty of businesses like to nurture their local relationships and offer great deals to customers coming from their local area. On the other hand, you may find yourself saving money just by dint of reduced expenses – a local business is easy to communicate and work with and, especially for an in-person service, fees like call out charges might be greatly reduced – and for other services, you may find taxes to be
reduced if you are only working locally.
Forming good working relationships is a massive part of running a business, and you want to make sure you’re doing it with the right people. As it turns out, those people might just be on your doorstep!